Wednesday, November 15, 2017

It is truly a rare occurrence for anyone in either the legislative or executive branches of government not to have favorite constituents to whom they give public money and other favors. For example, the City of Anaheim gives great tax advantages to Disneyland, Governor Brown and officials from many other states and cities are offering hundreds of millions of dollars in public incentives to Amazon, and most liberal governments ensure lots of extra tax money goes to public and private union workers. And that is not to mention the numerous “humanitarian” and “environmental” laws that directly feather the nests of some plaintiffs’ attorneys. In other words, we need to elect Libertarians, because all of this Crony Capitalism is totally against their philosophy!

We are (or should be) all in this together! Yes, companies respond to tax incentives, but to signal out one as opposed to the rest is simply wrong! What is offered to one business or group of people should be offered to everyone in the same situation. Otherwise not only is this unfair, it directly lends itself to increased lobbying, cronyism and political polarization. Certainly it is a plum for Anaheim to have a strong Disneyland to attract tourist dollars, and it will be a plum for whoever lands the second Amazon headquarters. But small businesses bring economic advantages as well, and just because they aren’t individually strong enough to hire lobbyists or to provide thousands of jobs does not mean that they should be shortchanged. Tax and regulatory advantages are a great idea, and they work. So let’s all join together and influence our governmental representatives to provide them to everyone!

** With apologies to nobody, I will be traveling for the next two weeks, so the next edition will be three weeks from now.

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)
2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President,
along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please forward this on to your circle of friends for their consideration and to further the discussion. And by the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejimgrayOAI, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com. Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty!

Monday, November 6, 2017

As you may have heard, recently the long-time sports television broadcaster Al Michaels said while doing the play by play in the third quarter of a football game between the New York Giants and Denver Broncos that the Giants were coming off a worse week than Harvey Weinstein, which was an obvious reference to the disgraced movie mogul. But the response on social media was so immediate and harsh that Michaels was forced to apologize by the fourth quarter. Of course, everyone certainly agrees that a comparison between the allegations against Weinstein, which are serious, and a football game is quite different. And, of course, there are some things that can never be funny, like death camps, slavery or the recent Las Vegas massacre. But come on, we simply must not as a country lose our sense of humor. All of this sensitivity is simply driving us further apart from each other, and most often unnecessarily so. Furthermore, all psychiatrists will tell us that it is mentally helpful for human beings to laugh at themselves, and that must be true for countries as well.

So what is the better approach? Since criticisms regarding alleged racism, undue police violence, attacks on women and other grievances in many regards are understandably and appropriately closely held, the best response is for the involved government officials to hold community forums where there can be open and honest discussions with all members of the community about these issues. But causing virtually everyone in public appearances to be so careful in choosing their words that they are afraid to say anything for fear of offending their audience simply must stop. For my part, my friends know that I never tease about things that I take seriously. (In fact, to tease somebody is almost a universal sign of intimacy and friendship.) So if I make a joke about someone, or something, they know I am not serious. And most other people like, I expect, Al Michaels, are the same way. So let’s all try to keep some perspective and regain our humor. But at the same time we should encourage formal and informal community gatherings at which good people can honestly discuss and address their feelings, and thereby together find resolutions for these problems. That would be called Liberty in action.

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)
2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President,
along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please forward this on to your circle of friends for their consideration and to further the discussion. And by the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejimgrayOAI, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com. Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty!

Saturday, November 4, 2017

How many of these sick people who wantonly and arbitrarily kill crowds of people with bombs, guns or their cars are acting as copycats of prior similarly demented acts by other people? Of course, we may never know. But every time these demented folks have killed people in places like Aurora, San Bernardino, Charlottesville and Las Vegas the media have prominently published their names and even their pictures. Don’t you think that this has an effect? The media can call them losers, shooters, terrorists or the social dropouts that they are, and even publish information about them such as their backgrounds and affiliations. But don’t EVER publish their names or pictures! Don’t glamorize them so that later copycats can have their turn having fame as well!

My Libertarian values don’t permit me to argue that the media should be censored in this area. But if one news outlet were to pledge publicly that it would stop this practice, not only would it be the responsible thing to do, many people like me in the marketplace would both applaud and turn to that outlet for news coverage. So this, in turn, would encourage other media to make the same pledge, allowing everyone to win. But there are other areas or irresponsibility as well. I still remember seeing a picture in the newspaper of then President Jimmy Carter putting on a bulletproof vest. Message to potential assassins: Shoot him in the head! Media, please give your reporting some thought and act in the public interest! So I am going to write a letter to several media outlets on this subject, and I am asking you to do the same! If we spread this message, we have a good chance of saving numbers of innocent lives.

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)
2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President,
along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please forward this on to your circle of friends for their consideration and to further the discussion. And by the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejimgrayOAI, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com. Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty!

Judge Jim Gray

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About Judge Jim Gray

Cited on numerous occasions for his work in the areas of both social reform and civic philanthropy, Judge James P. Gray currently presides over the civil trial calendar for the Superior Court of Orange County.
Judge Gray was appointed to the Santa Ana Municipal Court in 1983 by Governor George Deukmejian, and in 1989, Deukmejian elevated Gray to his post with the Superior Court.
Throughout his 29-year career within the legal and judicial community, Jim Gray has not only donated hundreds of hours of volunteer time to existing community service-oriented activities, he also has created and implemented a number of innovative programs of his own, each one a success story in itself.